New technology or scare tactic?

[AarontheRipper]

I recently started renting movies online from a company that rents edited Rated-R movies in an attempt to preserve my kids innocence for a little while longer. They take the DVD, rip it, edit it, and then rent a DVD-R while they claim to have one original for every rental. While I was signing up for the service, I noticed that in the "terms and conditions" agreement section, it says that they have a "new fingerprint technology" which allows them to see of anyone has tried to copy their product. I don't claim to be any sort of expert on the topic, but based on what I know about DVDs, etc. it sounds like they're full of s***. Can anyone enlighten me on this. I'm curious if something like this really exists (although I doubt it), and if it is real, why doesn't everyone use it, and what would it take to get your hands on that technology.

Note: I am not suggesting that people should rent and copy movies cuz as we all know, that's illegal, but I am interested in the technology (if it exists).

[VidGuy]

There's at least one company that claims to have a fingerprinting technology that will survive being reencoded to lower bitrates. I know I read about it somewhere in one of either these or doom9's forums, so searching around will probably find the reference.

[AarontheRipper]

Well, I know that if you made a copy of their material, you would be able to tell on the copy because they put their company trademark in the corner for most of the film, and I don't know exactly how you would get rid of that if you were trying to back it up. However, initially it sounded as if they could tell on their disc, after you returned it, that it had been copied. This doesn't make any sense because your computer wouldn't do anything differently to the disc than your dvd player would, would it?

[LanceSteel]

I recently started renting movies online from a company that rents edited Rated-R movies in an attempt to preserve my kids innocence for a little while longer. They take the DVD, rip it, edit it, and then rent a DVD-R while they claim to have one original for every rental.

Um, isn't it illegal to take a DVD, rip it and repackage it the way you see fit. I thought there was something like, say, a copyright law that was supposed to stop people from doing that type of thing. Unless they have special permission from the copyright owner, what they are doing is illegal (whether they have an original or not.) Anyway (back to your post), there is no way for them to look at a disk and say that it had been copied. How can they tell if a disk had been read on a standalone DVD player and displayed on a TV versus being read on a DVD-ROM drive and saved to an HD? They can't. It's just a scare tactic.

[Vejita-sama]

Yeah, the people that do this have come under fire from the varies groups (eg. Disney). The DMCA says that even possessing the technology to make a copy is illegal so...

[AarontheRipper]

Yeah, this company is constantly in court, but the way that they structure their business, they haven't lost a case yet. It is a club, and so with your monthly fee you are part owner of everything they have in stock, and so since you're not really renting it, just using it because you are a part owner, aparently it's okay. I'm not real current on what the law is, but they've been in business for three or four years, and haven't been shut down yet. They also have video stores that you can pick the movies up at, and if you buy a video and want it edited, you can send it to them, and for a nominal fee, they will edit it for you.

[AarontheRipper]

Oh, and thanks lance for confirming what I thought was true.

[housepig]

I think the whole "fingerprint" tech is so that, let's say you are a reviewer, and you get an advance copy of Two Towers.

You take that copy and burn 1,000 copies for your nearest and dearest friends, and some show up on eBay.

Theoretically, the fingerprint tech would enable someone from the studio to buy the copy from eBay, find out who's copy it was duped from, and take some sort of action against you (even if it's just freezing you out from future review copies).

but being able to check the returned disc and see if it's been copied? in the words of Bill Cosby...

"riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....."

[bokkasrealm]

Why would you rent from a place like this? They are just editing your life and you pay them for this? Turn off the tv if it has gotten this bad.

[AarontheRipper]

editing my life???

[LanceSteel]

They are just editing your life and you pay them for this?

Huh, bokkasrealm? I do agree that its easier just to turn the tv off and read a book or do 1,000,000 other things than watch a crappy sex/violence hollywood 'R' movie (or network/cable television in general.) Either I've changed or television/movies have changed because todays entertainment seems to be complete crap. But thats just my opinion...